Curtain about to fall on New York City Opera

Monday

Sep 30, 2013 at 11:23 AMSep 30, 2013 at 11:31 AM

Shock and dismay were palpable Saturday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the members of New York City Opera what will be their final performance unless a gift of millions of dollars materializes by tonight.

MICHAEL COOPERNEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

NEW YORK - Shortly before New York City Opera put on what will most likely be its final performance Saturday night, Julius Rudel, the maestro who helped build and lead the company in its heyday, sat in his Manhattan apartment and, surrounded by mementos from the troupe’s glory days, expressed his dismay at its probable impending demise.

“I would not have thought in my wildest dreams,“ said Rudel, 92, “that I would outlive the opera company.“

The walls of his apartment bear testament to the creation of a company that rose to ambitious heights. A framed program from its very first season credits him for the job he landed there 70 years ago this month: Julius Rudel, ripititeur (a musician who assists at rehearsals). A sketch shows the diabolical costume for the title role in Boito’s “Mefistofele.“ Another shows the set of “Pellias et Milisande.“ Now Rudel is closely following the company’s peril.

“I think it’s a real operatic tragedy,“ said Rudel, who led City Opera for 22 eventful years, presenting daring new works and crowd-pleasing productions and conducting treasured performances with singers like Beverly Sills and, on the company’s first night at its new home in Lincoln Center in 1966, a young Placido Domingo.

That sense of shock and dismay was palpable later Saturday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the members of the company presented the final performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Anna Nicole.“ Absent a last-minute gift of millions, it was expected to be the last performance City Opera ever gives. The opera’s board voted last week to begin dissolving the company if it fails to raise the $7 million needed to finish the current season by tonight - a target that is proving elusive.

Nancy McAlhany, a first violinist who has been with the company for more than three decades, said that even after all the bad news in recent years, it was difficult to believe that the troupe would really close. “I’m having trouble grasping this,“ she said.

To opera fans, the all-but-certain demise of City Opera portends a future with fewer choices and fewer off-the-beaten-path works. To arts administrators, it offers lessons in how a series of bad management decisions over the years could ultimately prove fatal.

But to the singers and musicians who make up the backbone of the company, it would mean a loss of performing traditions, the disappearance of another company that gives performers work, and farewells to colleagues who have grown close over the years.

Bridget Hendrix, a soprano who started in the City Opera chorus three decades ago - her first role was as one of the cigarette-factory girls in “Carmen“ - said that “the beauty of the company was that we were such a family.“

“We spent 12 hours a day there between rehearsals and performance - we lived there,“ she recalled. “The fun that we have in the dressing room, that’s going to be sorely missed. Having the girls in the dressing room talking about everything, it was like group therapy. We know too much about each other.“

Several veterans of the company said that they feared their fate was sealed when the troupe left its Lincoln Center home in 2011 and drastically cut back on the number of performances that it gave each year. They shared some favorite memories from their tenure with the company as it stood on the brink of extinction.

Stewart Rose, a principal horn player who began with the orchestra in 1977, remembered playing in the pit during his first few years while Sills, the company’s reigning diva, sang performances of “Manon“ and “The Merry Widow.“

“Just incredible,“ he recalled. “It was the end of her career, but it was still magical to hear her.“

McAlhany thought back to the company’s popular production of “Mefistofele,“ which was originally mounted for the bass-baritone Norman Treigle but, in her era, became a star vehicle for Samuel Ramey in his prime. She recalled the dramatic flourish that Rudel used to begin the piece, with the house cloaked in darkness.

“The house was completely black,“ she said. “Julius was on the podium, and in the blackness, he had a baton with a little light on the end - very tiny. He would raise it for the upbeat, and we would play in the dark.“

(Rudel also recalled those performances fondly. Asked about the lighted baton he used to signal the players, he said, “They had to start together somehow.“)

Hendrix remembered rehearsing for a production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd“ when Sondheim suddenly got up on the stage, introduced himself and offered some advice.

“He said, ’You want to seduce the audience, pull them in - then you destroy them,’“ she recalled. “Seduce and destroy!“

Several troupers recalled the 2001 season - which had been scheduled to start Sept. 11 with a new production of Wagner’s “Fliegende Holldnder.“ It was canceled after the terrorist attacks, and presented a few days later at a Saturday matinee.

Rose said the company had been unsure of what to do.

“That was quite a show,“ he recalled. “People asked, should we be doing this or not? And it turned out we were absolutely right to be doing it. There was such a feeling of warmth and love in the house from the audience and the company. I’ll never forget that.“

Hendrix said that the Saturday evening performance, of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado,“ was an even bigger challenge.

“It’s a comedy,“ she recalled. “We wondered, how are we going to do this in this tragic time, with a cloud looming over everyone?“

“And the most wonderful thing was when we came out and sang ’The Star-Spangled Banner’ onstage, with the orchestra and the cast,“ she remembered. “It was like the audience wanted it. They wanted, for those couple of hours, to escape, and that’s what we gave them. They were just ready for something light, to forget for a while.“

Rudel recalled how he had initially been wary of leaving the company’s first home, at City Center, for the newly built Lincoln Center.

“We were used to such frugal living, it seemed a bit daring to come within 60 feet of the Met,“ he said. But he said that he came to see it as the right thing to do. “Suddenly, you were playing with the grown-ups,“ he said, adding that he thought it was a mistake for the company to leave Lincoln Center and cut back on operas in 2011.

After the curtain fell on “Anna Nicole“ on Saturday night, Hendrix said, there were sobs in the dressing rooms. She said that Robert Brubaker - the tenor who played Anna Nicole Smith’s elderly billionaire husband, who collapses at one point only to sing the phrase “Not dead yet!“ - told members of the company that the line was dedicated to them.

Then the members of the chorus, and a few of the principals, gathered in an Italian restaurant on DeKalb Avenue for a closing-night party - and goodbyes. They celebrated a dancer’s birthday with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday“ as only an opera company can give, with intricate harmonies and clarion high notes.

It may be the last time they sing together.

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